THE POWER TO DESTROY

Former faster now marching to D.C.

Man who staged 40-day hunger strike continues tax crusade

Ron Strom is commentary editor of WND, a post he took after serving as a news editor since 2000. Prior to coming on board with WND, Strom worked in politics in California. Married and the father of two homeschool graduates, he has served in leadership positions in his church, local nonprofit boards and in county government.

The Texas man who fasted this spring for 40 days in protest of what he believes to be illegal enforcement of the federal income-tax system has taken his cause on the road, marching from his home state to Washington D.C. to confront the government’s leaders.

Gene Chapman, 36, stopped eating on tax day, April 15, saying he would not eat again until he had what he considered an honest, adequate response from the federal government to one question: “Where is my tax liability in the law?”

Sporting an Indian garment, Chapman spent much of his time sitting across the street from the IRS office in Austin, Texas. He did receive responses from his federal representatives, but he said the letters contained “just more doublespeak … from the government.”

“I want to pay any tax I owe,” he noted during the fast, saying the Bible exhorts him to do so. But, Chapman said, “I can’t find a law that says I owe a tax.”

Chapman is part of the “tax honesty” movement, which contends the federal government lacks any legal jurisdiction to enforce the income tax, that there is no law that requires Americans to pay the tax, and that the tax is enforced in a manner that violates the U.S. Constitution.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Chapman decided to stop the fast after determining he was violating two moral principles of Mahatma Gandhi, the one on whom his fast was based.

The activist then embarked on his “Tax March on Washington,” which is chronicled on his blog. Since beginning the march, Chapman has restarted his fast more than once to try to “unify” the “tax honesty” movement. According to Chapman, local volunteers from the We the People organization were reluctant to help him pass out flyers in Huntsville, Texas, after a “misunderstanding” between WTP chairman Bob Schulz and Chapman about the end of his fast.

The activist says he has fasted 56 days total since April 15 but now is back on the road toward D.C.

During his latest fast, Chapman says he began having episodes of blindness. He told WND he thought he might die after things began to “fall apart” around him. A Michigan trucker, Joseph Almond, however, came to his aid and helped him distribute several thousand flyers – a prerequisite for Chapman to begin eating again.

Chapman reported on his blog yesterday Texas highway patrolman pulled over him and his RV, driven by David Marsh, telling him he could not walk on the shoulder of the highway with a slow-moving vehicle behind. The activist says he is willing to risk arrest to continue his march.

So, what is Chapman’s goal? A Christian, he wants to bring a biblical message to the federal government: “Let my people go.”

Chapman also tells WND he hopes his march will bring the “tax honesty” movement “out of a coffee-shop mentality and into the streets.”

His march has received numerous donations, and his RV has become a rolling billboard for several organizations, with large vinyl banners hanging from it.